Prior to the 1918, Canadians were divided along cultural and linguistic lines over such issues as French language rights outside Quebec and Canada's place within the British Empire. However, during the inter-war years, there was a partial rapprochement between English- and French-speaking Canadians, especially in Quebec and Ontario. The author argues that this rapprochement was the result of both a 'ground-up' pressure from civil society, and cross-cultural consociational accommodation occurring among political élites. He points out that Anglophone and Francophone intellectuals, academics, professionals, businessmen and other citizens who were deeply concerned about the country's future called for a more tolerant, pluralistic and liberal Canadian society. As the rhetoric of cross-cultural understanding developed a wider audience, the federal political parties responded. The author notes that the Liberal Party, pressured by its own members from within civil society, became the political vehicle for rapprochement, and began to deal with the big issues of Francophone/Anglophone relations in ways that had been almost impossible a generation earlier.